Government that Looks Like America: Diversity in the Federal Financial Agencies

June 30, 2016

Despite a congressional mandate to pay more attention to diversity within federal financial regulatory agencies, Greenlining found that these agencies generally lack diversity at executive and upper management levels and often lack the systems needed to track progress.

On average, the eight agencies that submitted data employed 33.52 percent people of color, consistent with the U.S. civilian and financial sector labor forces. Some agencies improved their overall diversity since Greenlining’s last analysis in 2011.

Upper level management in the agencies, however, showed much less diversity, with people of color making up only 17.76 of executive management.

People of color were also severely underrepresented in jobs deemed “mission critical,” such as attorneys and economists. Latinos were most severely underrepresented, making up just 3.49 percent of the mission critical workforce.

Contracting with minority-owned vendors by the agencies varied dramatically from agency to agency, from just 2.6 percent of total contracts up to 36 percent, with an average of 17.61 percent.

To make progress, the agencies need to focus consciously on diversity with strategic plans, analysis of barriers to diverse hiring, and better data – particularly on the diversity of contractors.